Monday, September 15, 2014

USA: Improving market financials and continuing end market demand are combining to push ASIC Design activity to new levels. The Basic SoC market is being driven by the emergence in the Internet of Things (IoT) and the need for silicon solutions for this segment.

Mixed signal ASIC designs have been growing for the last few years as more and more systems seek to interface to analog type 'real world' functions. New research report from Semico, ASIC Design Starts for 2014 by Key End Market Applications, predicts the ASIC Design Start Market will grow 7.1 percent in 2014.

"Increases in ASIC Design Start activity are key to the improving health of the semiconductor market going forward," said Rich Wawrzyniak, senior market analyst. "The steady increases in unit volumes in many end markets also has a positive impact on design start activity and provides great support for the third Party IP market as well."

This increase is on top of the 5.9 percent growth rate in 2013 and is based on very good growth in the Mixed Signal ASIC market and on the Basic SoC market.

This last point is important for the semiconductor industry since 1st time SoC design efforts are where most designers develop or refresh the architectures that will carry their products forward over the next two-three years. A slowdown in these efforts can signal a reduction in innovation since 1st time designs are usually the most expensive and contain the most innovation over previous generations.

Increasing device complexity to meet rising market expectations for feature sets and functionality also is a driver of 1st time design efforts and increases here bode well for the SoC market and the third Party IP market as well.